Hubble Maps Show Jupiter Changes and Prepare for Juno

Spinning Jupiter and Global
Map
Scientists produced new global maps of Jupiter using the
Wide Field Camera 3 on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. One color map is shown
here, projected onto a globe and as a flat image.

Image credit:
NASA/ESA/GSFC/UCBerkeley/JPL-Caltech/STScI

New maps of Jupiter, produced using images from NASA's
Hubble Space Telescope, provide a detailed window on the giant planet's dynamic
features. The views come as the agency prepares for its Juno mission to arrive at
Jupiter in a little less than a year.

The maps are the first in a planned series of yearly portraits
of the solar system's four giant, outer planets, and are intended help
scientists monitor how these worlds change over time.

The Jupiter maps are of particular interest to scientists working
on Juno, which will arrive at Jupiter on July 4, 2016. "We've been coordinating
with professional and amateur astronomers for several years now to collect
observations that will help us plan Juno's activities once we arrive at
Jupiter. The new Hubble maps are an extraordinarily valuable part of that
effort," said Glenn Orton, a co-author on the paper from NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Already, the Jupiter images have revealed a rare wave just
north of the planet's equator and a unique filamentary feature in the core of
the Great Red Spot not seen previously. They also reveal that the red spot
continues its shrinking trend of recent years, becoming more circular and
changing from red to a paler orange.